


The Bond of Mortals and Demons

by CrazyNekoChan



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Fantasy World, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 19:20:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14677746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyNekoChan/pseuds/CrazyNekoChan
Summary: Never did Kazuichi Souda imagine that the simple act of helping a demon like Gundham Tanaka would bring him so many problems. The two of them simply wanted to end their bond and now they are facing one of the biggest threats in the world.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've created a [Character Bio](https://crazynekochan.tumblr.com/the_bond_of_mortals_and_demons) page for this story, so that you all can look up the informations on the characters if you happen to forget something  
>  **!Warning!** The Bio page will be updated together with this story, so I advise not to look at it unless you have read all the  current chapters or don't mind any possible spoilers

**Prologue**

 

 

For centuries the many different races of the world have been in a constant war with each other. The diviners, born with natural magical abilities and blessed with a long and sometimes even unending lifespan, ruled the world and have oppressed the human race, the only species born without any magical abilities, for years and have hunted them to use them as servants and sometimes even as food sources.

Despite being the weakest of all races, the humans were the biggest majority of all of the beings that lived in the world and were thus easily able to keep on living in the shadows of the diviners, who have kept on waging war among themselves in the hope to rule the world.

After many years of fighting the many races that were living in Kibōya, home of all the known species, began to fight less and less with each other until it one day finally has stopped and peace was made between all of the living species. However many prejudices had stayed and the races still had problems with trusting each other after all that has happened between them in the past.

 

During this time of peace the different races slowly began to develop their lives and culture with the help of their magic. They build cities and began working together to further themselves and each other even more.

However the humans were different. Born without any magical abilities, the humans used the one thing they did have. Their intellect.

Within years they managed to invent technology that made it possible for them to live independently from the diviners. Their first small inventions had quickly lead to a technological revolution and with this they didn't need magic any more to survive and were able to build their own culture.

The humans were able to integrate themselves with all the other races and began to work together with the diviners, instead of working for them like they had done in the past.

They have build many towns and their capital, Ryūkō, was build were once the biggest human colony and birthplace of technology had been standing.

 

The peace went on and the rest of the world had followed the example of Kibōya; forming peace and bringing hope between all living beings that were born into the world. Ever since then Kibōya became known as the 'Centre of the World's Hope', as it was the first country that had united all of the known races of the world and had ended the wars once and for all.

 

Many more years had passed ever since the world fell into a state of peace and the technology has developed as far as the natural magic that had always existed, giving every person the opportunity to live an equal life. They began to build cities were all the species lived in equal measure and many people from parents of different races were born, which made half-beings and even the rare hybrids the norm for everyone.

However there were still some people left who disliked the development that the world had taken, as they weren't able to forget the past and harboured a distrust and sometimes even a deep hatred for the other races and the peace that ruled between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this I begin my new multi chapter story, so I hope that you all will be able to enjoy what I have planned for it  
> (And I also hope that this story will work out, since I never wrote something like this and it has everything that I find challenging to write)
> 
> However I will keep my concentration mainly on my [An Idiot in Love Series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/868176) until the main story is finished, so I wont update this story as fast


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 

 

It was a clear sky and the moon's light was illuminating even the darkest hours of the night. It was possible to see thanks to the goddess that willingly shared her light with the realm of the living. However as a demonic being as Gundham Tanaka himself was, there was little need of the moon's generous offering, as he possessed the power to see even in the deepest moments of darkness.

Though he was having the slightest of difficulties finding his way through the outskirts of this cursed realm, as it was the first night that he had spend in this town and he had yet to get used to its complex layout. His holy work of taming even the most hellish of beasts had lead him to the human capital of Ryūkō, as the forest on the outskirts was home of many demonic beings that were fit to be his familiars. He did not waste his time with sightseeing after he had checked into the inn, in which he was planning to rest over his stay, since his mission was of the utmost importance and so he immediately made his way into the deepest forest and stayed there into the latest night. He had encountered countless beasts that were fitting to be his familiars, however as this was a process that took time and a lot of magical abilities it even was highly time-consuming for someone as powerful as him.

Even after years of training his skills in the act of taming and acquiring familiars there were still instances where they were reluctant at the very beginning and his bodily form was harmed on more than one occasion. However this was nothing that an Overlord like himself could not handle. In the very end he had always succeeded with taming all of the possible familiars, so a wound or two were nothing for him. Still, he should return to the realm in which he was staying for the time-being and tend to the newest wounds that he had acquired on his cursed left arm, as the blood was ever so slowly dripping through the bandages that he had wrapped around it. He also had to admit that they did sting slightly.

 

After walking around for a while he reached the first houses that belonged to the capital, when one of his trusted Four Dark Devas of Destruction suddenly poked his head out from Gundham's sacred scarf and looked around the dark night.

“What is bothering you, Mirage Golden Hawk Jum-P? Did you notice something?” he asked his familiar and let his eyes roam through the darkness. The other three of his Devas also began looking out from his garments and began scanning their surroundings. Something seemed amiss, however he could not see anything noticeable. The streets were deprived from other living beings, as most of them were already resting in their private realms for the night. There was nothing in sight, not even the hellish beasts that usually ruled the streets at the darkest hours, when the working humans and diviners were gone. This was an unusual sight and it made the demon raise an none-existing eyebrow. Still there was nothing in sight that would explain the sudden reaction from his Four Dark Devas of Destruction.

After having a quick scan of his surroundings he kept on walking, but kept his eyes open for any movements in the everlasting darkness that ruled this realm every night anew. But nothing ever came into his field of vision, so he began wondering if it was simply their imagination caused by their ever growing tiredness.

Slowly the occasional houses that were on the border of the forest began to accumulate themselves and the trees began to lessen more and more the further he walked towards the capital itself. Though he still had a bit to go until he would reach the heart of the technological capital, where the inn was located. For a few moments he thought about simply flying the last bit of the way, now that he was away from the many trees that would have hampered the act of flying, however it could lead to him having an even harder time finding the way as his view would be even more different from this morning where he had also been walking. It would also mean that he would need to take off his coat and summon his wings, which both took some time and in the latter case would cost some of his magical energy and he was already exhausted after channelling his powers nearly the whole day for the locating and attempting of taming potential familiars. Even the Overlord of Ice had his limits with his powers and so he wanted to save every ounce of magic that he currently had left until he had the chance to rest.

 

He only had a little more to go until he would reach a part of the capital that one could actually call a town and not the countryside. Very few gaslights were scattered here and there on the long road that connected the forest and the many farms and industrial buildings with the main capital. Still there were hardly enough that a being without the gift of night vision would be able to find their way safely.

To Gundham's slight surprise he noticed that one of the buildings still had it's lights partly shining despite the dark hours. It was slightly more in the distance, so he could not tell what this building was and why some beings were seemingly still awake, however as this building was not part of his mission he quickly dismissed it. It harboured no interest for him, apart from being noticeable in the darkness from it's light and slightly above average size in comparison to the other houses. Shrugging it off as simply another industrial building that were scattered everywhere in this cursed realm of the mortals, he turned to keep on walking.

Still the short moment where he had been distracted, mixed with his tiredness after the long hours, proved itself to have been a grave mistake as Gundham had not noticed the quickly moving shadows that suddenly surrounded him. Quickly the half-demon raised his arms and took on a fighting pose, while looking at the shadowy figures around him. There were at least five or six of them, all hidden underneath long coats and hats, making it nearly impossible to tell who or even what they were.

Trying to keep his eyes on them all, Gundham bared his fangs. “What do you foolish fiends want from me?” If he had to guess these fiends were most likely trying to mug him, as it was a common practise for these lowly beings that stalked others in the night.

One of them, if Gundham could trace the sound of the voice correctly it was the one to his left, answered, “Monsters like you don't belong here!” and with this all of them suddenly pulled out some sort of makeshift weapons and all attacked Gundham at the same time.

Thanks to his advanced physical powers Gundham was able to block the first baton that one of these fiends swung at him and punch that foe into his abdomen, sending him flying. However in that moment another hit was swung by another fiend, this time with a bat and Gundham was only just able to avoid being hit in his head, but it still managed to hit his right shoulder and a strong pain went through his whole arm. If he was lucky his bones were only sprained and not broken from the force. With a wave of his hand the ice demon froze the ground beneath his foes feet with the last powers he still had left and made some of them tumble to the ground. However they still outnumbered him and had weapons with them, while Gundham had been exhausted from the beginning, meaning he would need to abandon the fight. Still, the huge number of foes made it nearly impossible for him to flee from this. When he tried to pass the fallen fiends, another one managed to hit Gundham's head from behind and it made him stumble heavily, his whole world suddenly spinning around him. Turning around he raised his uninjured arm to freeze his foes completely, but before he was able to focus enough on the quickly moving shadows, one of them seemed to materialise in front of him and suddenly a sharp pain went trough his chest.

The shadow pulled away quickly and held a bloody knife in their hand, while Gundham's legs gave in and he fell to the floor. The last thing he saw was the twisted grin from the fiend that had stabbed him in the chest, before everything slowly turned dark and he lost consciousness.

 

***

 

Ever since his good-for-nothing father left without notice years earlier when Kazuichi Souda was still 17 years old, money had been even tighter than before. Not that they ever had much money to begin with. Quite the opposite, they have been struggling ever since Kazuichi could remember.

With the slow business that he was making it had become even harder to keep his family's workshop open for business. To his luck his best friend Hajime Hinata, whom he had known since he was a baby, had been looking for a place to stay at the same time around and since Kazuichi had more than enough room in the adjoining house, the two friends decided to become room-mates and so Hajime moved in and helped with paying the bills and food for them.

Ever since then five years had passed and now Kazuichi was a quite well-known mechanic and business was going steady again for him. Most of his money came in from customers that needed their vehicles fixed, raging from small steam-cars all the way to small single person dirigibles. Sadly his workshop couldn't hold a full sized dirigible, so most of them went to the bigger workshops in the centre of town. Well, you can't have everything. Still, he managed to get enough money to get by without much drama and with his occasional inventions that he built in his free time he was able to earn a bit of spare money at the side.

 

Earlier that day a customer, a half-vampire and merchant, had come into Kazuichi's workshop in the need of an urgent repair for an engine of his small dirigible. Kazuichi nearly had half of a heart attack when the bloodsucking diviner was suddenly standing behind him and the human had feared for a moment that he would end up as the man's next meal. Slightly unrealistic considering that vampires got their needed blood from banks and willing donators for cash, but one might never know and Kazuichi had always been easily frightened to his shame. There was also the little fact that he was slightly wary of the way stronger diviners, due to some bad memories from his childhood, but a paying customer was a paying customer.

The merchant had requested that the engine should be repaired by the next day, since he needed to return to his home town and had actually planned to leave that morning but while doing a routine check before lift-off he noticed that the engine had made some weird noises. So that the mechanic would finish the engine until the next morning, the merchant had paid nearly double for the possible overtime and so that Kazuichi would be willing to let his other projects rest for a day and only continue them when he was finished.

In the morning this had sounded like a great idea for Kazuichi and the bundle of cash that he was given as an advance payment looked even better and so he quickly agreed to repairing the engine by the next morning and having the small dirigible flight ready. However now he was starting to regret it.

When Kazuichi had moved the engine into his workshop it was still early midday and not even time to have lunch yet, however he hadn't anticipated how busted the engine was. It was now already way past midnight and he still was working nearly non-stop on that piece of junk. He had only stopped his work on the engine when Hajime had returned from his own workplace and the two friends ate dinner together. Of course Hajime had been way more interested in the half-vampire merchant than the engine. Kazuichi would never understand his friend's wish of being something else than a normal human, maybe expect the perk that diviners tended to get way older than humans like Hajime and Kazuichi did.

After dinner, Kazuichi had immediately went back into his workshop while Hajime took care of the housework that still needed to be done.

 

“Already past two a.m.” Kazuichi yawned when he looked at his clock after getting himself more coffee. His eyes were beginning to burn from being awake for so long, but he needed to finish his work. He had no idea what the guy did with his engine, but it was nearly falling apart and was now highly dangerous to use. If the merchant hadn't noticed the noise and he actually tried the fly his dirigible, the engine would've definitely fallen apart and he might have crashed from the sky. Not exactly the best way to go.

After having a stretch and hoping that this helped against his tiredness, Kazuichi returned to his work. “Another screw is lose...?” he mumbled to himself when he found yet again a screw that was strangely enough not tightened in the slightest and was on the edge of falling off. There had also been some parts that had no screws at all and sometimes whole parts had been missing. “Seriously, how did that guy even get here in the first place with that junk thing from engine?” he wondered and tightened the screw like the many before it. It was like it had been done intentionally by someone, but why should anyone do something so extremely dangerous? It could've not only killed the merchant but also other bystanders if the dirigible happened to fall onto people or houses. Even such a small one could kill a high number of people if it fell onto them and exploded. There was no way that this could be the case. Right?

Expect maybe if the merchant had made some enemies in the underworld scene. It wouldn't be the first case where the yakuza clan that ruled the underworld had disposed of their enemies, but Kazuichi couldn't remember ever hearing that they did it while endangering innocent people. And frankly he hoped that his customer wasn't an enemy of the yakuza clan, since he had no intention of having anything to do with these people. He liked his limbs unbroken, thank you very much.

 

While grabbing blindly to the side for his spanner, Kazuichi instead grabbed something more soft, thought he wasn't able to tell what he happened to pick up through his black working gloves. Turning his eyes away from the engine in which he was nearly climbing in by now, he saw that he was holding some sort of rodent in his hand.

“Wah! A rat!” he shrieked and quickly let go of the brown coloured animal, making it fall back onto his table before it was able to bite him and infect him with some deadly disease. Getting over his first shock at suddenly holding a small animal instead of his spanner which he had been expecting, he saw that there were actually four animals and there weren't rats like he initially thought. “What the heck? Why are hamsters suddenly in my workshop? Don't tell me you guys were also in that piece of junk of an engine.”

He suddenly had four little hamsters on his table and this without any reason what so ever. He never had owned any pets or had any skill with animals to begin with, so he had no idea where these four came from. Not knowing what to do, Kazuichi regarded the hamsters, who were jumping and running around wildly like they were trying to tell him something. Maybe it was him being tired and never having any pets, but he couldn't help wondering if this was a normal behaviour for hamsters or not. At least he never thought that they could move like they were actually trying to play some sort of charade.

“I really need more sleep.” Kazuichi sighed deeply and was just about to shoo the animals out of his workshop, before they managed to break any of the machine parts or get hurt, when he noticed that all of them had some red splotches on their fur. “Is that blood? Don't tell me that I've accidentally hurt ya buggers somehow!” Now this was the last thing that he wanted.

Deciding that his work gloves should be thick enough to stop the hamsters from biting him, considering that they were designed to help him against any possible cuts, he tried to pick one of the animals up to inspect it for any wounds. However the animal moved so fast to the side that Kazuichi completely missed it. “Well, at least ya don't seem to be hurt. But why are ya full of blood?” he scratched the back of his head, nearly dislocating his hat while he wondered why he even tried to talk to the hamsters. Maybe he really was too tired or maybe it was because it still seemed like the little fellows were actually trying to tell him something with the way they moved around.

One of the hamsters, the one with white and orange fur, ran towards the door leading outside and ran around in front of it and the other three followed the first one, doing the same. “I guess ya guys wanna get out of here.” Kazuichi shrugged and went to the door, opening it for them. However the hamsters only moved towards the frame, before stopping and looking back towards the human. It took a moment for him to catch on. “Don't tell me ya buggers want me to follow you out there. It's in the middle of the night and I can't see anything.” Though the full moon that was shining did illuminate the night quite a bit. But still, it wasn't exactly the most safe time of day to go out into a street with next to no lights. His neighbourhood wasn't exactly wealthy enough to install many street lights.

The hamsters kept on running around between his feet and one of them, the one with the chipped ear, climbed onto Kazuichi's body and jumped around on his shoulder.

“I can't believe that I'm doing this.” Kazuichi sighed and looked at the hamsters, “I must be out of my mind and most likely need to lessen my coffee consumption drastically, but fine I will follow ya and hopefully not die.” If the human didn't know it any better, it seemed like the weird hamsters actually understood him and immediately began running out into the darkness, while Kazuichi followed them warily. It was a bit hard to keep track of the small animals in the darkness, but the moon was just bright enough for him to be able to see them. However he did begin wondering if there existed any evil spirits that kidnapped people in the form of hamsters. Maybe it would've been better to wake Hajime up and take him with him or at least make sure that he wasn't simply hallucinating these weirdly behaving hamsters.

 

Following the hamsters, Kazuichi kept his eyes on his surroundings. He lived in one of the poorer parts of town and things like getting mugged wasn't exactly the most impossible thing to happen in the night. Walking over a field it was getting harder to spot the hamsters in the higher grass, but looking a bit further up he was sure that he could see something big lying on the floor and it seemed like the animals were leading him towards whatever that thing was. Walking a bit further his eyes widened, when he noticed that this thing lying on the floor was another person.  
“Shit!” he ran up towards them and kneeled next to the body. “Hey, can ya hear me?!” he shook the person, who was lying limply on his side, but the person only made a very faint sound and didn't move much. Carefully Kazuichi turned them onto their back and again his eyes widened. That person was a demon, which was recognisable on the set of horns that were on the person's head. But this wasn't the only thing that caught Kazuichi's eyes. “Fuck, you're bleeding!” It was a bit hard to see, but the man seemed to have a wound on his chest and was bleeding quite a bit.

“What the fuck happened here?!” Kazuichi asked and quickly tried to apply pressure onto the wound in the hope to stop the bleeding. This seemed to have made the demon regain a bit of his consciousness and he weakly tried to push Kazuichi away again, placing one hand onto the other's chest, while his other stayed limply on the floor.

“Hey, hold still. I'm trying to keep ya alive here.” Kazuichi quickly said and didn't budge at being pushed. Not that the man had much power anyway with the blood loss he suffered. The demon opened his eyes slightly and looked at Kazuichi weakly, before his head fell again. This made Kazuichi's eyes widen. “Hey, stay awake!” he tried to gain the other's attention, but to no avail. Kazuichi was beginning to panic now, so he tried to remember what he knew about first aid. He kept on applying pressure to the wound with one hand and quickly checked for a pulse. Luckily the demon still had a heartbeat, however when Kazuichi checked the breathing he noticed that it was very weak and close to stopping completely.

“Don't suddenly die on me here!” Kazuichi said to the unconscious man and temporarily took his hands from the wound and instead lifted the man's chin, before pinching the nose and covering the person's mouth with his own to give him CPR. Kazuichi kept on switching between applying pressure onto the wound and giving CPR, while the four hamsters keep on looking at him, until it at least began to seem like the demon was breathing on his own again.

Still Kazuichi had to do something, since the man was still bleeding and could bleed out at some point, no matter how long the human kept on with the CPR. He needed a doctor, but he couldn't summon one while being outside and at the same time Kazuichi couldn't let the man lie here on his own or he might die while Kazuichi was gone to get a doctor. Not to mention the possibility that whoever did this, was still around somewhere. There was only one way to hopefully solve this without the demon dying on him. Carefully lifting the unconscious man's upper body, Kazuichi quickly took off the other's coat and bloodied dress shirt and ripped the shirt apart so that he had some makeshift bandage and he then tightly wrapped it around the other's chest. The shirt was full of blood anyway, so hopefully the man wouldn't mind the loss of it.

Putting the long coat over the man's now mostly undressed body, Kazuichi then carefully lifted him up, trying not to move him too much while doing so and worsening his wound, and carried him as fast as possible to his house.

 

“Come on, stay with me now.” Kazuichi said to the still unconscious demon and placed him onto his sofa. He checked a last time on the man's breathing, which was luckily still mostly stable, and he then ran towards the phone while shouting as loudly as he could towards the upper floor. “Hajime, wake up! It's an emergency!” After hopefully waking his room-mate, so that he could help him, Kazuichi picked up the phone and called a doctor. It was a good thing that he was able to install a telephone a while back, so that he was able to actually summon a doctor, since there was no way of getting the wounded man to one.

After he managed to reach a doctor that was awake and would be willing to quickly come over, Kazuichi returned to the man lying on his sofa. The bleeding seemed to have slowed down, but now that he was able to look at the demon in some decent light he saw that he not only had a wound on his chest but also on the back of his head and some more his left arm. Though his arm was already covered in bandaged and the blood on these seemed to have already dried off. The man's shoulder also seemed to turn a deep purple colour. What ever happened to the demon, it seemed painful.

 

While Kazuichi waited for the doctor to arrive, he kept on applying pressure onto the wound and checked the man's breathing and heartbeat every other moment.

He was then able to hear footsteps come down the staircase and sure enough a set of highly dishevelled brown hair appeared in the doorway and a very tired Hajime was looking at him. “Kazuichi, if you supposedly saw another ghost, I'm going to hurt you. I don't want to explain to you again that they don't ex-” When the tired male noticed the bleeding body that was lying on their sofa, he was immediately alert. “What is going on in here?!” Hajime asked and ran towards his friend.

“I told ya that it was an emergency!” Kazuichi retorted after his friend had taken his sweet time to get up and actually move his arse out of bed and down the stairs. “Now help me to keep this guy here alive until the doctor arrives!” At the command of the mechanic with the pink hair, Hajime quickly helped him at keeping the demon stable until the doctor finally arrived, who then took over from there.

 

Letting the doctor do his work and stitch the unconscious man up again, Kazuichi and Hajime stood at the side and waited.

“So, will you now tell me what the hell happened, Kazuichi?” Hajime asked his friend, at which the doctor added to, “I would also like to hear the tale, if you don't mind.”

“I'm actually not sure.” Kazuichi admitted. Never in his life did he ever think that something like this would be even possible to happen in the first place. “I was simply working in my workshop when suddenly these four hamsters sitting there on the table appeared and didn't leave me alone until I followed them outside. They then led me to this guy here who was lying on the ground and was bleeding heavily.” Even repeating what happened sounded ridiculous.

Hajime simply looked at Kazuichi with a baffled expression, before turning towards the hamsters that were watching the doctor from the table on which they were sitting, while the doctor continued tending to the wounds of the unconscious man. “I see. Well it is a dangerous area to live in.” The doctor replied and then sat up and packed his instruments back into his bag and turned towards the two young men. “So, I have tended to the man's wounds and stitched him up again, so he's stable again. He has suffered from what seems to be several bite wounds on his left arm, a knife wound to his chest and a hit from a blunt object on his head and shoulder, which is now heavily bruised and he wont be able to move it over the next days or even weeks, and he still needs to regain his consciousness after the blood loss. However it's his luck that no vital organs where damaged and also that this gentleman happens to be a demon or he might have died before you even managed to find to him.”

Kazuichi and Hajime both were finally able to relax. The demon might be a complete stranger, but no one wanted to see some poor guy die in front of them. Hajime looked at the doctor with relieve, “That's good.”

Despite the good news, the doctor still looked troubled. “There is one problem now however.” There was always a problem. Nothing ever went easy in Kazuichi's life. “As I said before, we live in a very dangerous area. Especially as for late it seems like attacks on people happen more and more often, which leads to the problem that my clinic is already full with ill and wounded people. So I have no free bed for this gentleman any more.”

Now this was really a problem. Kazuichi looked at the unconscious man still lying on his sofa and he felt like he still needed to help him in some way. So there was only one thing to do in his opinion, surprising even himself considering how anxious he felt next to diviners. Giving a sigh, he looked at the doctor. “He can stay here until ya have room in your clinic for him.”

This surprised Hajime and the doctor, and the latter asked surprised, “Are you sure that you are willing to let this gentleman stay here?”

“Yeah, sure.” Kazuichi shrugged, “Moving him wouldn't exactly help with his wounds and it's not like there is any other place for him to go to at the moment.”

“Thank you very much.” the doctor seemed ever so grateful that Kazuichi was willing to let the man stay at his place, “I will come the first thing in the morning to check up on him.”

 

Now that everything was sorted out, Hajime saw the doctor out, who drove back to his clinic with his steam-car, while Kazuichi kept his eyes on the unconscious demon who was still lying on his sofa.

The man looked about the same age as Kazuichi and Hajime were, however since all demons were immortal and stopped physically ageing when they hit their mid twenties, the demon could be anything from twenty to a thousand years old. He was also strangely pale, even more than a vampire usually was and his black and grey hair was now partly covered by a bandage that was wrapped around his head, while his horns, which had the same two colours as his hair, were sticking out from between the bandage. The demon had a scar running over his left eye, making it seem like the man had seen his fair share of fights. That he also was still missing a shirt, after it being used to stop the bleeding and thus he now was unclothed on his upper body except of the bandages that were wrapped around his chest, showed that the demon had quite some muscle. Kazuichi had to admit that it was a nice sight, but not even he was that much of a creep to think that way about an unconscious man he didn't know.

Kazuichi still couldn't explain why he decided to let the demon stay at his house. Maybe it was simply his wish to make sure that the man was fine after all the trouble we went through with making him survive or he truly was so sleep deprived by now that he lost his common-sense and actually let a total stranger, who could be god knows how dangerous, sleep in his house. Whatever it was, he felt this strange sensation that he needed to help this weird guy.

“So, what now?” Hajime walked up towards the mechanic, after the doctor had left.

“Well he can't stay on our couch or he might fall off and hurt himself even more.” Kazuichi said and began thinking what they could do. The man needed to lie in a bed and the house only had two bedrooms, Hajime's and his own, so there wasn't a big selection to pick from. “Help me bring this guy into my bed. I still need to finish the engine before sunrise, so it's not like I will get much sleep tonight anyway.”

“If you are sure about it.” Hajime nodded and both carefully picked the demon up and carried him up to Kazuichi's bedroom.

Placing the unconscious demon into the bed and pulling the blanket over him, Kazuichi then put the coat on the chair he had in his room. “While the guy uses my bed, you can look after him for the night and clean the blood from our sofa. I need to work, so please only call me if something is going on that ya can't do on your own.”

This made Hajime nod, “Faire enough. So see you later then.”

 

Since the mechanic had lost a lot of time due to the demon that was now sleeping in his bed, Kazuichi immediately went back to work on the engine that was still inside of his workshop. He didn't even bother changing his now bloody clothes, since it would only waste time he didn't have and could be dealt with at a later point in time.

When he finished repairing the prior junk that the merchant had called an engine and installed it back into the dirigible, the sun was beginning to rise on the horizon. He was now officially 24 hours awake and working nearly non-stop, and frankly he was ready to simply fall down onto the floor and sleep on the spot. Kazuichi was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Still, he couldn't sleep yet since he had to return the dirigible to its owner. Waiting for another hour to pass, where he cleaned up his workshop, the merchant thankfully arrived and after a very short and tired briefing what had been the problem in the first place, Kazuichi took the rest of the payment and watched the merchant fly off without the danger of crashing down and killing someone.

Now that this was also sorted, Kazuichi slowly made his way into his living room and looked at his sofa. It seemed like Hajime had been able to remove the few small bloodstains. So the tired male let himself fall onto the now very inviting piece of furniture without even bothering to remove any of his clothing and he fell asleep as soon as his body hit the sofa.

 

“Hey, you need to wake up soon.” someone gently shook Kazuichi, making him open his eyes slowly. It was Hajime, who was looking at him. “It's nearly noon and you can't stay asleep the whole day long and I need to go to work soon, so you need to take over.”

Stretching his body and yawning loudly to get rid of the lingering tiredness, Kazuichi sat up and pushed his hair out of his face. “I'm up, I'm up...” he mumbled tiredly while picking up his hat that had fallen to the floor while he was sleeping on the sofa. But why was he sleeping on his sofa and not in his bed? And what did the other mean with take over? He was still way too tired with only a few hours of sleep and his head still needed a few minutes to catch up. He felt like he was forgetting something important, at least until his eyes happen to see the still present bloodstains that were on his waistcoat and gloves. “Oh shit, what's with the demon? Is he still alive?” He had nearly forgotten that he had some weird demon on his house. Why did he even let the stranger stay in the first place? He had to have been out of his mind!

“Yes, he's still alive, albeit unconscious.” Hinata answered his friend, “The doctor was here this morning as promised and said that it seems like the guy is starting to get better, but still needs a lot of rest and actually wake up. So you need to check up on him now, since I need to go soon.”

Great, this would mean that Kazuichi would be completely alone with a stranger who could kill him with his magical powers. But in the end it was him who offered to look after the demon, so it was too late now to go back on his word. “Fine, I can do that. Did someone at least find out who the dude is?”

“Sadly no. The guy had nothing on him that could identify him.” Hinata answered. Of course it would be this case, “However, I did notice one thing. He is wearing a holy ring, so there might be someone looking for him right now. Maybe we're lucky and his partner will turn up and take the man with him.”

Again Kazuichi ended up with being confused at what his friend had said. “What the hell is a holy ring?” He knew what a ring was, but he could not phantom what a holy ring was and what it had to do with someone looking for the demon. After all he was a human who lived his whole life in the human capital where the number of Diviners were minimal, so he had next to no knowledge about anything magical, or in this case holy. Unlike his best friend who was a literal fanboy when it came to Diviners and magic, and knew nearly everything there was to know.

“It's a ring that appears when demons or angels marry someone after their own traditions; they are also called demon or angel rings. In short, it's the same as a normal wedding band, but simply a magical version that's exclusive to them and their partners.” Hinata answered and Kazuichi only wondered why the other not simply said 'wedding ring' from the very beginning. But it was at least a start to find out who the weird demon was and maybe they really got lucky that someone, who was looking for their missing husband, would appear.

 

Getting up from his seat, Kazuichi stretched himself. “Anyway, I'll go get changed. I feel filthy with all the blood on me.” He definitely needed to wash his clothes. It was a good thing that most of the blood was only on his gloves and due to their black colour it was hard to tell it was there, for the chance that he didn't get the stains out completely.

Walking into his bedroom, he saw that the demon was still lying unconsciously in his bed, while the four hamsters were dozing on top of his body. However it seemed like he was now wearing one of Hajime's sleep shirts, so that he at least was covered a bit more than before. Shrugging it off, Kazuichi quietly went to his closet to pick out some clean clothes. Just as he was about to grab one of his dress shirts, he stopped himself since he was still wearing his now bloody gloves and would only soil his other clothes if he touched those with them. He didn't even want to know how his hands looked, considering how much of the demon's blood he had touched and still hadn't bother washing off due to his work and tiredness. Pulling the gloves off without thinking much about it, his eyes suddenly widened and he screamed at what he saw.

 

***

 

Gundham was slipping in and out of consciousness, trying everything to not die and instead move his body in any way. However he did not manage to move his body much. The pain was unbearable and his body was feeling weaker with every drop of blood that he lost through the wound on his chest. If the dark gods deemed that he would be worthy to survive this cowardly attack of these fiends, then he would make them pay. Still he was aware that his chances stood slim, as he simply could not move and do anything against the heavily bleeding knife wound to his chest.

When he had first fell back into a semi-conscious state he had noticed that the Four Dark Devas of Destruction were not by his side any more and he hoped that they were safe and not also ended up as victims of these despicable fiends. He had no magical power left to track his familiars of call any of them for help and before he was able to do anything, his eyes fell closed again.

Some time had passed, how much the half-demon could not say in his state, and Gundham was sure that he could hear a very distant voice call out something. Had these fiends returned to finish their job of ending his cursed existence? Suddenly he felt a pressure on his chest and the blinding pain was actually able to make Gundham return to his senses. As fast as he was able to move, Gundham tried to push the fiend away with his undamaged arm, as he was not able to move the other. However he could not muster up the strength any more and so the fiend did not even budge. Gundham had never been this weak before in his entire existence and he was not even able to fight back against this foe.

Again a distant sounding voice called out and Gundham was sure that he heard the voice say the words 'Keep' and 'Alive'. Was this fiend actually trying to help him?

Using every last ounce of strength that Gundham could muster up, he slowly opened his eyes and right in front of him was some sort of mortal, that was looking at him with what seemed to be a panicked expression. The way that the Luna goddess's light shone onto the person from above made them seem like an ethereal being, who had came to gently lead his cursed soul into the next realm. The sight was comforting and slowly his world returned to the everlasting darkness one final time.

 

At least this had been what the Overlord of Ice had expected. However he was suddenly able to hear a loud scream that ripped him out of the darkness that had taken over his earthly form. He was again able to feel the immense pain that was now seated in his whole body, however it was not as severe as it had been before he fell into the eternal darkness. The pain made movement next to impossible, so he was not able to even move a single muscle.

Yet he was beginning to hear a voice clearly, that was shrieking with what seemed to be panic. “What the hell is that thing?! Oh god, it's looking at me and I can't get it off!” Gundham could recognise that voice. He was sure that he had heard it somewhere before. It sounded like the being that he had seen before he lost his consciousness.

Another voice suddenly appeared and it sounded just as distressed as the first one. “What's wrong?!” Unlike the first one, Gundham did not know this voice.

“Help me!” the first voice shrieked with fright and it was shacking badly, “What is that thing?!” Was some sort of demonic beast where he currently was? If this was the case, then the Tamer of Hellish Beasts needed to do something, as it sounded like that the owner of the voice seemed to be in grave danger.

 

Collecting every last ounce of willpower and strength he could muster, Gundham was finally able to open his eyes and he was instantly blinded by light that shone into what seemed to be a bedroom. It looked like the dark night had passed to some degree and his prior unconscious body had been moved to some place that the demon could not recognise.

“Calm down Kazuichi and let me see or I can't help you.” one of the voices said and sounded alert about whatever was going on.

To see who these voices where and what exactly was causing this commotion, Gundham sat his body up and looked at the two people, one of them with short brown hair who looked at the other with slightly longer pink hair. The latter seemed like he was next to crying and was helplessly trying to do something with his hand. Yet there was nothing else with them, that could cause this amount of distress. At least not that the Overlord could detect. In fact he could not detect anything, so he assumed that these two fiends were of the human kind, as they were fully deprived from any kind of magic.

While Gundham had managed to sit his body up, this act made an unbearable pain shoot through his body and he made a sound of distress while he fell back onto what seemed to be a bed. This immediately caught the attention of both beings that were inside of the room and the one with the brown hair quickly walked up towards the wounded demon.

“You shouldn't move or your wounds might open again.” the man said and looked worriedly at Gundham's chest and checked him. “Good, your wound didn't open, but please stay put.”

Out of instinct Gundham glared at the stranger, as there was no guarantee that this mortal was not plotting something malicious. “Who are you fiends and where am I?” Gundham asked, yet he did not manage to bring much strength up to talk with much force, like he had planned to use. However as his trusted Devas seemed calm about these two mortal, then maybe Gundham could trust them.

“I'm Hajime Hinata and this here is Kazuichi Souda, who found you and brought you here.” the man called Hinata explained and pointed towards the other man who still harboured tears in his eyes, but did not say anything. Now that Gundham did look at the man with the pink hair, he did recognise him. It was the same person who he had seen in the darkness. So this mortal had indeed saved his life. The brown haired mortal then continued talking, “You are in our house and a doctor came by to stitch up your wounds last night. Can you tell us your name and what happened?”

Due to the hit he suffered to his head, it was slightly harder for Gundham to keep his concentration up so he needed a moment to recall everything of the prior night and the attack. “So you wish to know my name? Others may see your courage as recklessness. However as it was you two mortals that have saved my cursed life, I will honor your wish and reveal to you my name. You may call me Gundham Tanaka, the supreme Overlord of Ice. Remember it well, for it is the name that will one day rule this world!”

The one with the pink hair looked at the demon with a dumbfounded expression, before turning towards the other. “Either this Tanaka guy was seriously hit over the head or he's a complete nut job.”

Hearing this made the demon furrow his brows in annoyance at the ignorant human. “You foolish mortal. I might be injured at the given moment and thus unable to move much, however I am neither deaf nor am I a dimwitted being such as you are!”

“Dimwitted?!” the Pink Haired One looked positively shocked at hearing this term to describe him, “Hey, I saved your bloody life and let ya sleep in my bed, so be grateful!”

Before this growing argument could dominate the discussion, the ordinary looking one intervened. “Calm down you two. And Tanaka, can you please tell us what happened last night and where you've gotten these wounds from?”

Setting his body up as much as he was able to in his state, so that Gundham was able to converse a bit more properly with his two hosts, he began explaining. “It is a shameful tale. I was on my way back from the deepest forest and wanted to return to the inn in which I was residing during my stay in this town, given that I still am in Ryūkō and not have been moved to some other realm. As it had been a tiring day and the light giving sun had long died for the day, I had been at the end of my physical abilities and this was when a group of cowardly, cloaked fiends attacked me from the shadows. I was heavily outnumbered and these fiends had taken weapons with them and so they were able to overpower me, as much as it shames me to admit to it. I remember being first struck on my shoulder and then on my head, which had made my vision spin and the last hit I took was to my chest from the most cowardly of them all, as this fiend had taken a knife to the unfair duel. After this I do not remember much, as I have went down after the knife attack.”

The Ordinary One looked shocked at the tale, but still kept mostly calm. An admirable act. “So you have been mobbed. Well you did wear a very expensive looking coat. Did you have anything of value with you, Tanaka? Because when I looked for any form of identification on you, I fond nothing valuable.”

“I did also gather as much.” Gundham agreed to the conclusion of the mortal, “And I did not. As I had no use for any earthly riches during my work, I did leave all my possessions at the inn.”

“Well, at least they weren't able to steal anything then and you survived the attack.” the Ordinary One said, “Still, I would advise you to go to the police when you are able to move again.” The mortal did have a point, as these despicable fiends needed to be punished for their foolish act. Though Gundham would prefer it if he himself would be the one to do the punishment and not leave it to the juridical system of this realm of the living.

 

Suddenly the Pink Haired One interjected their conversation, his voice still strained with anxiety. “That is nice and all, but can we please now return to helping me get this thing on my hand off, before it can kill me?!”

“Ah yeah, I nearly forgot.” the Ordinary One turned towards the other mortal, “But I still don't know what you are talking about, since you didn't show me what it is that's apparently stuck to you.”

“This thing!” the Pink Haired One shouted and held his left hand out towards the other mortal. “What the hell is it and why does it look like there is an eye that is actually moving around?!” On his outstretched hand he was wearing a golden ring with a ruby, that did in fact show a demonic eye. However it only confused the half-demon, as it made no sense why the mortal would wear such a ring without knowing what it symbolises.

The eyes of the Ordinary One widened and they trailed between the outstretched hand from Souda, towards Gundham and then back. “What the... ? Why are you two wearing identical looking demon rings?”

Souda and Gundham both replied in perfect sync, “What?” and gazed at their hands. Sure enough Gundham was wearing the same ring on his left ring finger. However that could not be, there was no way.

“Say Tanaka, did you ever marry?” Hinata had suddenly asked him with an uncertain voice and it seemed like he had to take up all of his willpower to keep calm while asking.

“No, I did not form a holy bond.” Gundham shook his head at the question. “At least I do not remember such a thing ever happening.” That was ludicrous that an all-powerful ice demon, who was poisonous at touch, would ever bind himself to a holy marriage, as there was no being in this cursed realm that would be powerful enough to be his partner.

The pink haired mortal seemed confused, as he was not able to follow where the Ordinary One was going with his deduction and truth to be told, Gundham wished to not understand either. “Why are ya suddenly talking about marriage?”

The Ordinary One finally began breaking and suppressed laughs left his mouth when he answered the other's question. “Well, I don't know how to say this, Kazuichi, but may I introduce you to your new husband. You two are married with each other it seems” he pointed at Gundham, who was near enough frozen in his spot on the bed.

With wide eyes, the Pink Haired One followed the outstretched hand and stared at Gundham for a few moments in silence, before screaming. “WHAT?! MARRIED?!”

It had also taken Gundham a few moments to process the ludicrous tale that the Ordinary One was proposing, however it was the only explanation for the suddenly appeared holy wedding bands on their ring fingers. Except that they did not marry. To disprove the claim, the demon quickly brought his left hand to his damaged arm, so that he could use his magic on the ring and examine if it truly was a genuine holy ring and if it was from the same set that the human was wearing. His hand began glowing in a purple hue and he activated one of the ring's many hidden powers. Sadly to Gundham's immense shock, the ring did in fact react to this and began glowing, just as the one that Souda was desperately trying to pull off his own ring finger to no avail and both demonic eyes that were part of the rings innate magic began looking at each other.

Just how and when did Gundham get married to this lowly mortal named Kazuichi Souda?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since a lot of you have said that it was frustrating to wait so long in 'An Idiot in Love' for them to get together, I thought that I might speed the process a bit up for you all and directly marry them off x)
> 
> I might have also drawn [the scene where Gundham sees Kazuichi for the first time from this chapter](https://crazynekochan.tumblr.com/post/173956452887/a-scene-from-chapter-1-of-my-new-fanfiction-the)  
> *shamelessly self-promotes myself*


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